Tandoori Chicken with Masoor Daal (Red lentils)

Here’s another great tasty Indian dish. Originally this recipe is meant for duck, but as our course is all about creativity we decided to add a different, Western twist to this delicious meal by replacing a duck with guinea fowl. Unfortunately in this case I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone L

Recommended as a great alternative to chicken, it didn’t go too well when mixed with Indian spices. If your taste buds are not  prepared for some gamey, robust flavour: better not to try it. For me it was worth to taste once, but similarly to pheasant, this bird is not everyone’s cup of tea. Therefore I decided to recreate the dish once more at home, but this time using traditional, well known chicken. This time it turned out really delicious.

Ingredients:

1 baby chicken- washed and skinned

½ cup natural yoghurt

2 Tbsp double cream

1 Tbsp whole milk

2 tsp tandoori paste

Salt, pepper- to taste

Pinch of sugar

For daal curry:

1 ¼ cup red lentils

½ medium-sized onion- finely chopped

2-3 medium-sized tomatoes- peeled and chopped

3 cloves of garlic- finely chopped

1” piece of fresh root ginger- peeled and finely chopped

1 green finger chilli

½ tsp turmeric powder

1 tsp chilli powder

1 tsp cumin powder

Fresh coriander to garnish

1 Tbsp Oil for frying

Salt to taste

1. Preheat the oven to 180C. With a sharp knife or poultry shears, remove backbone and wing tips from chicken and cut the chicken into serving pieces. Cut away the skin and fat.
2. Mix yoghurt, cream, milk and tandoori paste in a bowl. Add salt, pepper and pinch of sugar and stir together. Coat chicken pieces in the prepared mix and marinate for a while.
3. Place in a baking tin and pour the remaining batter over chicken pieces. Grill in a pre-heated oven for 30-40 minutes until juices run clear when pierced with a fork.

Tandoori paste has a distinctive red colour- while mixed with yoghurt it adds a pinkish tint to the chicken.

Daal curry:

(This is a simple recipe, which I always use cooking daal at home. It works perfect with tandoori chicken)

1. In a medium-sized saucepan, heat oil over medium heat. Add in onions and  fry for  6-8 min, till translucent, soft and lightly browned.
2. Add ginger, garlic and green chilli. Fry for about 2-3 min, until aromatic.
3. Add turmeric and chilli powder and stir together for a few min, so onions can absorb the flavour.
4. Add tomatoes and mash them with onions to thick paste.
5. Rinse lentils well and add them into the saucepan with salt and 2 ½ cups of water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and simmer uncovered, stirring occasionally, for 15 to 20 min, or possibly longer  just till lentils are tender.
6. Half way through the cooking process spice up with cumin powder and fresh coriander and stir together. Cover and set aside. Just before serving, you briefly reheat the lentils and serve with the chicken.

Tips:

While lentils are simmering in the saucepan, you can also approx. 2 Tbsp of batter used for marinating the chicken. Sauce will thicken and gain a creamy consistence and lentils will absorb flavours from tandoori paste.

Daal can be also served on its own as a vegetarian curry.

Serve with Indian flat breads, rice or potatoes, salad and yoghurt on side. Enjoy!